Little Things to Make This World a Better Place

Gandhi. Photo credit: Google.

Pilgrim, the Higher Truth has thus be revealed to me

in a most profound way. I sat reading Gandhi’s Autobiography 

'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'

and inside the covers, I picked one important legacy he left for the world:

Service.

This world, Pilgrim, cries out for service.

Men and women who can do something for others—

not for money’s sake, not for fame’s sake,

but for the fulfillment of their mission on this Earth.

All around me I see these gallant men and women.

You might not find them on billboards and monuments

You see them everyday, some helping an old man

Crossing the road, some helping out an illiterate read a letter.

And when we are long gone, Pilgrim,

It will not matter what we accumulated in our sojourn here

But the little things we did to make this world a better place.

Note:

I have finished reading Mahatma’s Gandhi Autobiography titled ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’.  I hesitate to comment much on the book as I need time to digest what Gandhi’s life means to me. Of course, Gandhi is well known for the ‘Satyagraha’ and as satyagrahi ( or would-be’s), we have important lessons to pick there.

Allow me to say this. I have admired a great deal Gandhi’s service to humanity. He eschewed self aggrandizement. He strove for the others. As an advocate, I admired his truthfulness in his legal career, albeit intermittently. If a client was untrue to him, he would not take up the case. I also remember him pointing out an error to the court, which had the potential harm of them losing the case. This, despite the fact that his Senior in the case thought otherwise.

On humility, Gandhi would travel Third Class in trains and experience what those passengers went through ( Until later, much to his regret, when his health failed him and thus could not). Of course there are numerous other examples from his life. But today, it appears that humility is equated to weakness. Pomp, braggadocio, chest-thumping are seen as important ingredients for upward mobility. I have always remembered, much to my consternation, my clients telling me “you are so soft”, the other party needs somebody who will shout and create so much noise and intimidation. Unfortunately, I have never been this person. I always want to state my position and my convictions calmly and deliberately. Fanfare is not for me.

I intend to experiment on some of Gandhi’s experiments. As for now, I would not want to comment further. But there are important lessons I have drawn from the book.

THINK BIG: BEN CARSON

At Poets United Thursday Think Tank, there is a prompt to write a poem inspired by a book one has read or is reading. I have read hundreds of books now from as diverse areas as possible but the one that will always stand out is THINK BIG by Ben Carson.

I read the book after I had finished form four.  I wish I had read it earlier.

Never have I been influenced by a book than THINK BIG. The acrostic stands for:

T -Talents/time: Recognize as gifts from God;

H -Hope for good things and be honest;

I -insight from people and good books;

N -Be nice to all people;

K  -Knowledge: Recognize as they are key to living;

B -Books: Read them actively;

 I -In-depth learning skills: Develop them;

G -God: Never get too big for Him.

I also read Gifted Hands (perhaps contrary to what should have been expected since it came first). You see, in the village where I grew up the danger was that there were a lot of uncertainties about the future one had on education and being “different”.  So, we read because that is what we had been told to do. And when one finished form four, one knew that that was it.

Then THINK BIG came into the picture.

I was opened up to a world of a thousand possibilities. I was given a pedestal where I could stand and say, ‘yes, folks, I am here to rule the world’.  So, urged by Ben Carson, I grew from that timid, cocooned village boy to one ready to take the world by storm. I wasn’t very sure about doing Law then. After that, I believed it earnestly. In my learning at Campus, I read intently. I never read to pass exams (though that was the ultimate goal, unfortunately). I have always tried not to be narrow in my reading. So, I don’t read Law only. I read spiritual books, I read biographies, I read proverbs, I read history, I read novels ( classicals come into mind such as Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, John Grisham, African authors notably Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kenyan authors especially Meja Mwangi, David Mulwa, Dawood—honestly, I cannot name all of them). And there are philosophical books which I admire a lot. The thinkers such as Ralph Ewaldo Emerson, Voltaire, Friedrich Nietzche, and many others, in their books, expand our minds to such elasticity they can never be the same again.

Well, now to the poem, inspired by the book THINK BIG.

So, someone thought that by holding a gun he is so powerful?

Fingers on trigger, ready to rip, where is power in that?

I say a book in somebody’s hands is the most powerful

I know of countless little frames who with books

Have wielded so much power by thought

Their fists are this small, their bellies are these small,

If you met them in the train station or somewhere near a mall

They will be your ordinary guy

But verily verily I tell you

If you measured their minds by ounces

The kilo of their thoughts will break the weighing machine

Such are books, such are thoughts

I don’t know of any other way

To improve one’s welfare than through books

Believe me, I tried mediocrity and it didn’t work

I would watch flat-out dimwittedness cascade before me

And I would swat it hard only for it to taunt me

Been years now, I hear she lives in another town

Well, I confess, I can’t fight

So, for a few hours reading

Brushing through what others before me thought and said

I am called a genius!

The other day, I ran through the inventory of my wealth

Hardly any apartment nor car

Just stacks of books

When time comes I will tell my children,

“Children, I was a wealthy man, of that be sure,

Not your ordinary trappings of wealth

No, in these books I leave you, search for Truth,

Rub minds with the great sages, aim for greatness

Ordinary people strive for food, clothing and shelter

Great people strive for Essence, Spirituality and Higher Realms”

Confucius Tells Me

Confucius tells me:

“Lorot Son of the Hills,

read

as if you

are chasing

after

somebody

you are

afraid

of losing”

my kinsmen tell me:

“Lorot Son of the Hills,

read

all

 the books

in that

school

learn all their secrets”

following their counsel,

I threw my heart into this

poring on endless pages

flipping through tomes

Chasing after that solitary man

and while I have not read all books

( my kinsmen will be shocked at this)

the much I have read

have stretched my mind

to endless possibilities

I could hitch my mind

on an abstract object

and still get a lifeline!

C) Lorot Salem 2011